The AI Medium is The Message (Presentation Slides)

The AI Medium is The Message Christopher Kenneally

Find one hour to read The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan. You will feel you are breezing through it, yet you will have food for thought to last for days. Does a slim paperback book from the era of Mad Men really speak to 2025? Check out this quote: “Formerly, the problem was to invent new forms of labor-saving. Today, the reverse is the problem. Now we have to adjust, not to invent. We need to find the environments in which it will be possible to live with our new inventions.” This presentation reflects on the continuing vitality of Marshall McLuhan’s ideas about new media technology and especially identifying his practical advice for a radical and ethical approach to AI that is to be found in The Medium is the Message. We all recognize that we live in interesting times. It is the business of the future to be dangerous. We owe it to ourselves, our colleagues, our customers, and our professions to reckon with the present so that we may prepare for the future.

Christopher Kenneally created the Beyond the Book podcast series for Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) in 2006; later renamed Velocity of Content, the show ran until 2024. He is currently host and executive producer of The Spoken World, a podcast series covering audiobooks and audio publishing. As an independent journalist, he has reported for the New York Times and Boston Globe, among many other publications, as well as for WBUR-FM (Boston), National Public Radio, and WGBH-TV (PBS-Boston). At book fairs and publishing conferences in Europe and North America, Kenneally has developed and moderated dozens of programs covering audiobooks and podcasting as well as on intellectual property law and artificial intelligence. He contributes opinion columns regularly to the Boston Business Journal.